Computers, and technology in general, sold to the public as things that will “make life easier, more fun, more relaxing, and will give you more time to do what you really want to do,” actually make life more stressful, less fun, less relaxing, and take up most of our time.

Most “technical assistance” people you talk to on the phone either A) don’t speak English; B) are using a computer that won’t update quickly, thereby taking up most of your time; C) don’t really know what they are talking about; or D) talk so fast that you can’t understand them, even if they are speaking English. And most of this doesn’t really help a person get a problem resolved, so it really doesn’t qualify as “assistance.”

Social media is supposed to bring people together, but it has been proven that it does more to separate people, isolate people, and make people feel more lonely than they ever have.

Cell phones have become our friends, instead of helping us connect to our friends. Disagree with me? Put your cell phone down and don’t carry it around for one whole day. I guarantee you’ll think more about your phone than you think about your friends.

“Meme.” If you break up the word “meme” into its two parts, you have “me, me” which could also be written as “ME! ME!” which is exactly what a meme does. It puts the spotlight on you, the person who sent the meme. So there. You now have your five seconds of fame (the amount of time it usually takes to read a meme). Enjoy it.

News media no longer delivers news to the public. But you already knew that, so this thing is old news. Probably the last thing ever to be stated that was actually news.

You can now create your own radio station, on your cell phone, or your computer, so you can listen to the songs that you want to listen to, without having to listen to a bunch of ads or music that you really don’t want to hear. Mankind used to do this very same thing with a device known as a record player. And then an 8-track tape player. And then a cassette player. And then a CD player. And then an MP3 player.

The “Paperless Society.” Such was the idea presented in the 1970’s, but now we’re finding that there are a lot of problems with reading and working on documents that aren’t on paper. So technology has been pushing for everything to be electronic (paid a bill online recently?), and yet, electronics is causing us to have more problems with documentation that we would like to admit. The biggest problem? Limitations on creativity, and adding personal touches to documents that are, well, personal.

Signatures no longer have to be written. As a matter of fact, handwriting skills have dropped off considerably, due to the fact that letter writing is almost non-existent. Even more so with hand written letters. However, a signature is as personal as one’s facial features. So, in an effort to make things more computerized and “easier,” everything is becoming less and less personal. Well, it’s all… “just business,” right?

IMHO, TOBAL against the use of TMA, initialisms, and abbreviations in EL. LOL! AFAIC, our ability to converse is MUBAR. Money? ATM. Entertainment? TV, CD, and DVD, if not MP3. Time? GMT, EST, CST, RMT, and PST. @TEOTD, if we can’t communicate, then what do we have? IMPO, all this alphabet soup is G4N. BWDIK.

Sometimes, I think we forget that Jesus’ twelve disciples were real people.

I mean, think about it. They lived in society. They worked. They had wives. They had neighbors. They had kids.

They had to deal with a government they didn’t like, one of the nastiest, most brutal governments in all of history. I’m sure the government lording over them day and night made tons of decisions they didn’t like.

Do you think they were less opinionated than we are about our government?

They had to deal with the cost of living, and pay taxes, just like we do today. They had to abide by the rules and norms of society, or face the consequences, just like we do today. They had bosses, and coworkers that they didn’t always get along with. Just like us. They dealt with impatient customers, hateful competitors, long days at work, and probably didn’t get vacations. At least, not like we can today.

So do you think they complained much?

The disciples, at least some of them, had wives. They probably had children, too. They had brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents. They knew the meaning of “family squabble.” They had dwellings to keep up, animals to feed, preparations to make for bad weather during certain seasons. They dealt with dirt and sweat every day, and weren’t afforded the luxury of taking a bath every evening before they went to bed.

They had neighbors.

I mean, that’s enough right there, right? Neighbors. Neighbors can be a very good thing, but they can also be a pain. Neighbors can be all up in your business, or they can be weird and watch you (translated, stare at you) from a distance. They can be the best neighbors in the world, or the most horrible in the world. And you don’t know how they’re going to be, until you’ve already moved in next door to them!

Some of you might think it’s silly to bring this up, but it’s not. Most of us today have this very simplistic view of what life was like in the Israel of New Testament times. We think that everyone in Israel thought the same things, felt the same way, lived the same way. Not hardly. The disciples lived in an area where people from many different nations passed through, all the time. Not only did they have to live with the mindset of the Romans (and all who were secretly working for the Romans, looking for a way to find favor with Rome), but they also had to live alongside others who didn’t believe the same things they believed, didn’t worship the same way they worshiped. There were Greeks in the area. There were Samaritans. There were Phoenicians, Aramaeans, Itureans, just to name a few. Lots of different belief systems, lots of different mindsets about life and what was most important. The disciples had to live peacefully among all that.

And to beat it all, even though the disciples were Israelites, they were looked down upon by the Judean Israelites, who thought the Galileans were very uneducated and beneath their dignity. (Sort of like how Democrats look down on Republicans, and Republicans look down on Democrats. But I’ll leave that for you to pause and calmly think about.)

So, in the midst of their very normal, daily lives that aren’t that different from our own, they encounter a Man like no other, a Man who has a completely different perspective on life, who isn’t ruffled by the government’s ugliness, who isn’t offended at the loud and unruly neighbors, who isn’t worried about the rising cost of living, the taxes, or the workplace.

A Man who isn’t stressed about the future.

And this Man says, “Follow Me.”

Seriously? Follow him? With all the fear we place in our kids nowadays (and ourselves) about “stranger danger,” I’m not sure I would have done what the disciples did, had I been in their shoes. Er, sandals.

The Bible says that they “dropped their nets and followed him.” There wasn’t any discussion. There wasn’t any “meeting of the minds” between them and their families, between them and their bosses, their coworkers, their kids.

There wasn’t any hesitation. They just… went.

Honestly, I’m not sure everything suddenly changed for them, though there were some drastic changes that happened immediately. If they had any position in society, that no longer mattered. If they were of a certain mindset about how society was supposed to work, they put that aside. Did their opinions rear an ugly head? Oh sure, from time to time. But following Jesus was the only thing that mattered to them. Their wives and children had to come into agreement with that, because that’s what happened. And they didn’t abandon their families; somehow they honored those commitments. But they did that under the all-encompassing commitment to Jesus. He was their master.

“Love your neighbor.”

Yes, the unruly neighbor, the loud neighbor, the neighbor that steals from you, that stares at you, that stands aloof and won’t talk to you. The neighbor that believes differently from you.

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

Romans, too? Yes, Romans, too. Just because the government isn’t acting the way you want, you still bless them, and don’t curse them. Judean Jews? Yes, even them. Pharisees and all the others. Bless them!

“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.”

Jesus didn’t allow the attitude that it was okay to keep from the government what rightfully belonged to the government. He didn’t agree with complaining about the government that was in charge at the time.

Hmm.

Jesus didn’t demand anything of them, but to love one another. Past one another’s faults, past one another’s strange personalities, past one another’s pasts and mistakes and failures and goofy bad habits. He asked them to love the people around them that weren’t part of their group. He asked them to stand up for what was right, but in a loving way. He asked them to be patient with one another, and with others outside their group.

What Jesus asked of them, they did. They answered the call.

One of my most favorite songs of all is Steven Curtis Chapman’s “For the Sake of the Call.” I’m adding a link here, for your enjoyment.

Let’s answer the call, okay? The world needs us to do this right now, more than ever.